Islamabad, 3 September 2015: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is initiating “Pakistan Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards Planning and Training Programme” that would benefit livestock officers at the national, provincial and district levels to be better prepared to handle livestock emergencies. In this regard, FAO in collaboration with the Ministry for National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R), the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), the National Agriculture Research Center (NARC) and USDA organized an inception workshop which was attended by the government livestock officers from across the country.
Honorable Federal Minister for the National Food Security and Research, Mr. Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan was the chief guest on the occasion. Also present were Dr. Gulam Muhammad Ali, Chief Scientist/Dy Director General, PARC, Mr. Jack Mortenson, Agricultural Attache- Animal Health Advisor- USDA, Mr. Francisco Gamarro, Deputy FAO Representative to Pakistan and Mr. Nasar Hayat, Assistant FAO Representative (Programme).
In his address, the honorable minister said that ‘’the project is very timely and important initiative for Pakistan’s agriculture sector. It will help the disaster preparedness apparatus to be better prepared in terms of livestock. There is a growing realization that responses to disasters should include protection of livestock assets and rebuilding of livestock based livelihoods. The Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) provide a set of guidelines and standards for design, implementation and assessment of livestock interventions to assist people affected by humanitarian crises”.
Mr. Francisco Gamarro, Deputy FAO Representative to Pakistan said that “Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts. Rapid changes in the agriculture sector are taking place at the international and national level which has direct and indirect implication on local communities. Coordinated efforts are needed to tackle the issues of climate change at grassroots level”.
Dr. Ghulam Muhammad Ali, Chief Scientist/ Dy Director General Research, (PARC) extended support for successful implementation of the project. Mr. Nasar Hayat, Assistant FAO Representative (Programmes) shared key notes on the project objectives, activities and expected outcomes.
The livestock sector is an important subsector of the country’s economy. More than 8.0 million rural families are involved in raising livestock –main source of income and nutrition. During 2014-15, the sector contributed approx. 56.3 % to agriculture value added- 11.8 % of the national GDP. In past decade, the country has gone through many disasters that had devastating impact on the lives, livelihoods and food security of a large number people and their sources of income especially livestock based livelihoods. In 2010-11 floods, over 100,000 head of livestock perished. The economic loses were enormous and only 2014 floods in Punjab, the economical losses to livestock sector were estimated to be more than Rs. 350 million.
The LEGS focuses on the importance of protecting and rebuilding livestock as a key livelihood asset in emergency and post-emergency situations. LEGS was created with support from FAO, and by the end of 2014, a total of 80 LEGS trainers around the world have been accredited and over 3,000 professionals have attended one of the 160 three-day LEGS training that have been conducted [END].

For Media and Communications please contact:

Mahira Afzal | Communication Officer |
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) |
Islamabad, Tel: +92-51-9255491-3, Email: [email protected]